The Return
by Levistel
Summary: The passage of time has done many things, but in the remains of a burning, shattered world, the Warframes still sleep. An indepth 'imagining' of the current era.


_For centuries, the Tenno in their Warframes slept. Laid to rest in resplendent cryopods at the Dawn of the new age, content to pass on as legends until such time as they are needed again. The Orokin gone, the Sentients defeated, humanity free to develop and expand. There was no need for warriors. The leaders of the time decided that humanity had experienced enough conflict and hardship to allow the Tenno to remain what they were then – an embodiment of violence and deities of war. That was the first mistake, but we were happy with survival then, and thought we understood what it was to have freedom from fear. We were wrong. Freedom is not freedom without morals. Freedom without morals, without fear of consequence, breeds corruption, into which humanity has fallen further than ever before._

- The Lotus, Awakening Age.

**Prologue – The Awakening Arc**

"We will honour and watch over you."

That single promise, frozen in time, kept him alive. While his body rested and his Warframe dimmed, his mind slipped into a waking sleep, holding onto the echo of those last words. He thought on how such a simple sentence could convey both gratitude and condemnation as the cryopod lid closed over him. The cold, numbing gases seemed warm against his suit as they leeched away his energy. He realised he could interpret it both ways, as a statement of gratitude on his actions in this lifetime protecting his people from the darkness of the outside, and as a statement of condemnation on the warlike nature of his design that now had no place in the peaceful, forward-looking society he had helped forge.

The war was over. He had done his part, in the countless dusks and dawns during the conflict on each planet where humanity could possibly hold their final stand against the Sentient Machines. They had come from the darkness outside civilisation and had forced humanity back, killing for unknowable motives until they reached… him. Images flickered of _white fluid flashing along his blade_ as it slid cleanly through a tube and _starbursts of white and red-hot shrapnel_ from Sentient units pierced by his gunfire. Nearby, a Tenno soldier - one of a hundred thousand he'd seen die - lay gasping, _a red river trickling from her leg and shoulder _as he strode forward, mindful of her silent plea to finish the desperate fight for their homeworld. He, along with his now-resting equals, were enough to stop and drive them back one fateful day, known by the survivors as the Miracle of Earth. Sent fleeing by gun, sword and Archwing, the Sentients left, back beyond the veil of darkness and the triumphant, united human forces had rejoiced.

By sending him and his equals to a sleep none would awake from in – who knew, a hundred years? A thousand, while the rest of humanity rebuilt, colonised and prospered. Would he ever be needed again?

But he was not unhappy. He was content. When he had been sent into the Void to learn what he could out of desperation for his people, this was what he dreamed of. A world without war needs no weapons. And he taught what he'd learned to others so that their shared dream might come true.

As he felt his thoughts slowing down, succumbing to the coolness of the cryopod, the last one burnt clearly in the face of the coming darkness, and he held onto it fast. While the promise may have kept him alive, the dream kept him human.

_We are safe._

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong>

Ohai. It _is_ me, if you recognise the writing :)

I took a break from Warframe and to be completely honest, I think it'll stay that way for a while considering that the circumstances under which I left haven't changed. Much. While I won't be playing as much, I'll definitely try to keep this writing thing up, because I'm enjoying it. The lack of solid lore in Warframe works both ways - it's unnecessarily vague and unengaging from a player's perspective, with little to emotionally invest in, forcing an even greater dependency on visceral gameplay to retain player interest, but on the other hand, it's pretty much a clean slate for authors such as myself to get into.

I don't know. Forgoing the game for the fanfiction is a pretty weird thing to do, I reckon, but that doesn't mean I'm not in love with the possibilities. Anyway, I've decided to restart this project after about 5 months of hiatus on the forums. It'll have much the same promised layout (A series of story arcs detailing the current era of the game inasmuch as it _can_ be novelised), and I've fleshed a bit more of it out for this release, which is gonna be awesome. Hopefully.

Thanks for reading the start to my first fanfic - I know, it's a really short teaser more than anything substantial -, I'd love to get feedback (please don't embarrass me too much) and I'll aim to get the next chapter out soon(TM).


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